Sabres Limp into Pittsburgh

If you were doubting the Sabres ability to make the playoffs, this may put you over the edge. They will head into Pittsburgh tomorrow without 2, possibly 3 of their defenseman. Dmitri Kalinin is out 1 to 2 weeks with a shoulder injury. Jaroslav Spacek is out even longer with what they called an injury to his chest area. Nathan Paetsch is banged up, and has whip lash after the hit he took from Sean Avery last night. He still can't move his neck today and Lindy Ruff said he's doubtful. Paetsch said he will be in the line-up, but I can't imagine he can have an impact feeling like that. If he can't go, they will use Jason Pominville on Defense. They did call Mike Weber up from Rochester, who will play 15 to 16 minutes against the Penguins. He's thrown into a tough situation with the Sabres desperate for points. he does have some added motivation, that he will be playing in his hometown. Weber said he hasn't been back home since he was 14 years old. The good news is that Henrik Tallinder will return to the line-up as he was cleared to play. Tallinder is returning from a bruised shoulder suffered in last Tuesday's game against the Flyers. Overall the mood of the team was what you would expect. They seemed to take it all in stride, and even spoke of their Game 7 against Carolina in the Conference Finals when they were banged up on defense. If you remember, Doug Janik actually scored a goal in that game. I know, it is hard to forget Rory Fitzpatrick standing over the puck and not knowing where it was until it finally went into the goal. Oh, if he had only cleared that puck out. Anyway: The Sabres are hoping if they can get past the Penguins with the injuries on the blue line, it may be able to jump start something for them. The funniest quote of the day: when Ruff was asked how the team is taking the bad news about the defenseman... he said, "I haven't told them yet.. I was waiting to tell them until after the game tomorrow.. I was going to see if they noticed if anyone was missing".